Computing visionary to keynote OpenSim conference

World-renowned computer scientist Grady Booch will deliver a keynote address at the first annual OpenSimulator Community Conference. Grady’s keynote address, titled “My Virtual Life,” will reflect on a quote from Joseph Campbell, who observed that, “One has to know how and when to put on and to put off the masks of one’s various life roles.”

Grady Booch

Grady is internationally recognized for his innovative work in software architecture, software engineering, and modeling, and is perhaps best known for developing the Unified Modeling Language (UML) with Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh and helping originate the term and practice of object-oriented programming and design. An IBM Fellow, ACM Fellow, IEEE Fellow, and recipient of the BCS Lovelace Medal and Turing Lecture, Grady is the author of numerous best-selling books and technical papers, including the UML Users Guide and the seminal Object-Oriented Analysis with Applications.

About OpenSimulator

OpenSimulator is an open-source platform that supports the creation of collaborative, immersive, distributed and social 3D virtual environments over the Internet. Started in 2007 and developed by individuals and organizations large and small, it has become a versatile system with which anyone can experiment. OpenSimulator software is now the basis for many “grids” of varying sizes and purposes. http://opensimulator.org

About Overte Foundation

The Overte Foundation is a non-profit organization that manages contribution agreements for the OpenSimulator project. In the future, it will also act to promote and support both OpenSimulator and the wider open-source 3D virtual environment ecosystem. http://www.overte.org/

About AvaCon

AvaCon, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the growth, enhancement, and development of the metaverse, virtual worlds, augmented reality, and 3D immersive and virtual spaces. We hold conventions and meetings to promote educational and scientific inquiry into these spaces, and to support organized fan activities, including performances, lectures, art, music, machinima, and much more. Our primary goal is to connect and support the diverse communities and practitioners involved in co-creating and using virtual worlds, and to educate the public and our constituents about the emerging ecosystem of technologies broadly known as the metaverse. http://avacon.org

It would be nice to continue to observe AP conventions on your online “newspaper”: details such as the when and where always occurring at the beginning of the article, and references to the subject after the first use the last name, not the first name, of the subject. And seriously, “staff”? C’mon. Unauthored documents lack any kind of ethical appeal, much less than everything being written by the same person. Don’t let the site go downhill. The ads that are here are already misleading– they pretend to be journalism but are not: don’t allow the rest of the site to go that way as well. These fake ads and lack of authenticating authorship combined with basic journalistic faux pas lead to an increasingly unprofessional resource that I, as a professional writing teacher, cannot link to or support.

This was a press release. You can tell by the words “press release” at the top of the article. In journalism circles, this is “contributed content” that is not authored by anyone in particular. Well, by a corporate committee of some kind — certainly not by anyone at this publication. Removing the author’s name and bio just for the press releases would require significant editing of the WordPress template. We figured most of our readers would have enough common sense to understand what a press release is, so we haven’t invested in that expense. If we hear from any other readers who are similarly confused, we’ll make the change.

I’m not sure what you mean by “fake ads.” Are you saying we don’t get paid for them? It is true we run some ads for free for non-profits, as a service to the community, and some house ads. But we do get paid for the rest. Enough to occasionally pay freelance contributors, and to cover our hosting costs.

The ads do not pretend to be journalism. They don’t pretend to be anything. They’re just ads. In journalism circles, this is known as “advertising content” and, since they help pay journalist salaries, are known as a necessary evil in the profession.

Sorry to be snarky, but it’s a hot day, on a weekend, and writing instructors who don’t know much about writing are a personal pet peeve of mine.

While writing this comment, just thought of a way to make things clear for people such as yourself, who don’t know what a press release is. (Non-native English speakers, say.) Since the only thing that the “Staff” account is used for is posting press releases, I’ll change the word “staff” to “press release” and in the bio explain that this a press release, contributed by an outside organization.

Thank you for taking the time to write, and for reminding me that everyone has something to offer.